Bodywork 68 F100 Bed

[pyrofighting]

Bodywork Help
by pyrofighting on Mon May 25, 2009 11:23 pm

I have a 68 F100 Long Bed. I am at the point of doing bodywork on my bed. It has creases on both sides of the bed a couple feet long that run into wheel arch. As some of you may know there is very limited room behind the body panel since the inside bed panel is there. What advice do you have to remove these creases... Heat, Dent Puller, Hammer and Dolley, etc.?

Thanks

Here are some pics. As you can see the front crease runs into the wheel arch, it also pulled it in so the arch is messed up.

[Len]

In our shop there would be no discussion, we would grind the metal clean and pull the dents out using a stud welder. It does a clean job that can leave the metal almost perfectly level and the work on the panel in the picture would be done in about an hour.

There are a couple of tricks that make the stud welder work great...
1. Pull on the metal while hammering around the pull with a body hammer. This will walk the dent out carefully so that it doesn't pull too far out.
2. Don't weld the studs on too hard. Just tap the trigger, pull on the stud then put a cutter behind the stud's head and snap it off the panel. This is a lot easier than welding the stud on too well then pulling the metal, cutting off the stem and grinding off the head of the stud. On jobs that take a lot of studs (like those pickup sides) this can save you a lot of time.



http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/hs4550.jpg
Stud Welder Link (http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=2SW)

[pyrofighting]

Thats the one I bought from you a year ago or so.

Are you saying to weld all the studs on first, right on the crease. Start with the stud closest to the end of the dent. Then use the slide hammer and work my way to then middle. Place 1 stud about every inch.

I am very new at this body work stuff, but enjoy it.

[Len]

Thats the one I bought from you a year ago or so.

Are you saying to weld all the studs on first, right on the crease. Start with the stud closest to the end of the dent. Then use the slide hammer and work my way to then middle. Place 1 stud about every inch.

I am very new at this body work stuff, but enjoy it.

Good! You've got the right tool.

Yes, on this particular job you can start at one end and work to the other. You can use the slide hammer to start pulling out the dent then stop and hold the slide hammer while leaning back and tapping around the pull with a body hammer. This will give you more control than just using the slide hammer. You can remove the studs an install others in the low spots as needed until you're happy with the metal then grind and apply your filler.